The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook_ A Home Manual - James Green [23]
Summer Serenade for Carolyn
“Night cricket can sing you through a lonely eve; night cricket will sing you to the morning light.”
—T. ELDER SACHS
A SIMPLE HARVEST RITUAL
Harvest at ease, in rhythm and focus.
Sit for a while with the plants you want to harvest. Treat yourself to the splendor of their beauty; enjoy the well-being you share.
Seek out the grandmother plant, the elder of the community. Focus on this plant and yourself together. Place intimate energy around the two of you by visualizing warm light surrounding you or by shaking a rattle and feeling a field of cohesive energy encircle you (nature spirits and human babies love the sound vibrations of rattles … remember?).
Be still in body and energy. Slow down your pace of thought and action with a ceremonial offering to the grandmother and her clan. This adjusts your normal human pace to better align your energy with the energy of the plants. Just sit with the stillness and empty your mind. Meditate. Tune to your inner hearing. Plant spirit speaks to these ears.
Communicate clearly your harvest intent and clarify to the plant and again to yourself the purpose of the medicine you wish to prepare.
Ask permission to harvest, asking when to harvest, where, how, and how much. Plants, when listened to, inform you how best to harvest and receive their gifts.
At this point, it is possible that you might sense a “no” answer. Honor this. Not all of a plant’s medicine energy is contained or accessed merely in its physical body. Be content for the moment to harvest plant communion and companionship. Come back again later or visit another community and extend another request.
When you feel permission to harvest, harvest softly. Impact the plant community and the ecosystem minimally. You only need enough herb for the year. Upon feeling a sense of permission, you will have strongly connected with the plant and infused your harvest with its spirit. As you work through the harvesting action, maintain communication with the individual plants you are taking, and sustain focus on your intended uses. Genius is focus.
As a conclusion to your harvest, express your gratitude to the plant community. Grandmother will be smiling and you will know it.
As you are leaving, pause for a moment and look back at the plant community. Ask yourself if you harvested softly. Does it show that you were there? How much does it show? Be with your feelings about this. Learn from them; they are your truth. A novice’s mistake of effecting an over-enthusiastic harvest is always forgivable; but it is a teaching to be valued and taken to heart. Visualize the healing energy of the medicines you are about to make with the plants given to you by this community and bid farewell.
Return to your home and process your harvest immediately.
Go dancing that evening. Dance the energy and character of the plant spirit you harvested. Dance with your plant allies. Dance your happiness and your gratitude. A plant person’s life is an expression of joy and companionship.
HARVESTING EQUIPMENT
There is paraphernalia necessary for the harvester. The minimum equipment required for an impassioned harvester is merely a pair of hands and some means for getting them to the plants; a healthy pair of feet is adequate for that job. But I am a stickler for taking meticulous care of all tools and equipment; therefore, I strongly recommend protective coverings for your hands and feet. Sandals and bare fingers are a pleasure to use for harvesting Red Clover or Calendula blossoms on a warm summer day, but high-top gumboots (a.k.a. duck boots, galoshes, Wellingtons) and gloves will be deeply appreciated when harvesting Stinging Nettles on a soggy river bank in early spring, or for trekking across a sloshy forest